The Shark and The Sea
by SoarWithMe
Summary: The shark cannot live without the sea. The sea doesn't have meaning without the shark. Oneshot for Squalo's birthday  Squalo x Marina  OC


**A/N: It was Squalo's birthday on March 13, 2012! :D So, I decided that this could work. It's slightly older, but enjoy! ~Alice**

Today was already a crappy day. Being blamed for someone else's mistake by a teacher, getting beaten up by upperclassmen, and somehow becoming the victim of a food fight was only the beginning. Oh yes, Marina's day was about to get worse. She wasn't a wimp, just young and rather unlucky.

Sitting there in the headmaster's office, she mentally cursed the person sitting in the chair beside her. He pretended not to notice her glare and the obvious waves of hatred directed toward him. Squalo merely studied his fingernails, as if he'd never seen them before. When he finally looked up, Marina was still staring at him, as if attempting to bore holes in his head with her eyes. "What are you staring at me for, brat?"  
>"I have actually have a decent name, you know."<br>"That doesn't answer my question."  
>"Like hell I care."<br>"Pretty smart-mouthed for a seven year old brat, huh?"  
>"Try me."<br>"It's too bad you can't hold your own on the same level that you bluff, brat."  
>"You haven't seen anything yet."<br>"Oh really? As I clearly recall hearing, you're that brat some guys were pulverizing before third period. And, you were a pretty sad mess fighting me. I think I've seen all that I need to."

Marina turned away, scowling bitterly. Squalo smirked in triumph. She sat there, sulking somewhat, remembering exactly what had happened.

She was sprinting through the hallway, darting past flocks of students walking in the opposite direction. Running after her was an upperclassman and his two cronies. Marina was their daily victim. They beat her up almost everyday, usually to make her do their homework. Yesterday, she had purposefully filled out their economics class test study guides incorrectly. They ended up flunking their tests. Her victory was short-lived, as she was now likely to get beaten to a pulp.

She would have gotten away, had it not been for one idiotic upperclassman. Marina could see the classroom about ten feet away. "Almost there," she muttered, willing herself to keep going. Her pursuers just happened to pass by a certain blonde, who had just happened to see her pass by.  
>"Hey Cavallone, did you see happen to see a little brat pass by? You know, short, hair's in a ponytail-" Dino looked a bit surprised. Normally, these guys didn't even look at him, let alone talk to him.<br>"Uh, yeah, she ran that way," Dino pointed his finger in the direction Marina had ran by.

Marina turned around just in time to see the bullies talking to some blonde guy. He pointed a finger in her direction. As the upperclassman's eyes met Marina's, he started running after her. At this point, her legs felt like jelly and were refusing to move. She didn't know why, but her entire body refused to move.

They started closing on her, and she prayed silently, preparing herself for the worst. She knew they were stronger, and decided not to fight back. For now, it wasn't worth it. Her time would come.

The bully grasped onto Marina's hair and pulled her head back with almost enough force to rip it off. He kicked her in the back, causing her to fall the ground. They all took turns, kicking her around and punching her until her arms and legs were all covered in bruises. By the time the bell rang, they decided that they were bored, and headed off to class.

Muscles burning, Marina clung onto the wall, hauling herself up. Her left sleeve was torn, and she was bleeding from the corner of her mouth. As she dragged herself into the classroom, the teacher didn't say a word. Her classmates all stared at her briefly, before focusing their attention back to the lesson. But, even as they took notes, Marina could hear them whispering quietly amongst themselves, glancing at her once in while.

Lunch wasn't any better. An invisible hammer seemed to continually smack Marina in the forehead. Her stomach was empty and she was running low on energy, yet didn't have an appetite. Ironically, Marina was silently being grateful that the day hadn't worsened much, as she passed by a group of students that were having a food-fight. Said students decided it would be an awesome idea to fling food at someone random. Marina just happened to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time. Oh joy.

"Incoming!" she heard as an army of tomatoes came flying her way. She barely had time to react, struggling to dodge the red fruit/vegetables. Alas, Marina had failed to spot one fatal tomato. It hit her square in the chest. Red, acidic juice stained her school uniform, as the tomato exploded upon contact.

That just went too far. Fumbling through her lunch box, Marina looked for ammo to shut up those idiots. Then she found it. A cupcake. She had made it last night, planning to actually enjoy lunch, but now there were more important matters to attend to. Taking the cupcake, she hid it behind her back and approached the boys. Marina smiled, unsheathed the cupcake, and rubbed the frosting into all four of the guys faces. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted two unopened soda bottles, and rushed to get them. She shook the bottles, carefully opened them, and emptied them on the now blind guys' heads. Head high in triumph, Marina left them as a sticky mess, and wondered what she could do about her uniform.

She had a few options. Option one, ignore the stain. Option 2, borrow someone else's extra uniform. Option 3, wear a jacket over the stain. Well, she had a jacket... And she was the shortest kid in her class, so asking someone for an extra uniform would be really awkward. It might have gone something like this:  
>"Hi, um, do any of you happen to have an extra uniform? One that fits me would be a plus."<br>Everyone would probably laugh at her.

The rest of the school day was ok. Marina scored high on her tests (not unusual) and nobody bugged too her much. She sat there in science, daydreaming, anticipating the bell. In approximately five or so minutes, depending on how accurate the clock was, school would be over for the day and she'd be free. Kind of.

Counting down the seconds, Marina put away the rest of her supplies into her backpack. One. Two. Three. Ring! It began sprinkling outside, just as the bell rang. The clouds grew darker, threatening the sky with a storm. Students began piling out of the classrooms, struggling to stay as dry as possible. Most people always considered this as 'bad' weather. Marina thought the rain was serene and beautiful. Storms were like roses in her eyes.

She sauntered through the plaza, in love with the rain. Some people whispered and pointed and tried to suppress their laughter, but Marina didn't care. Being in a trance, she hadn't noticed the other only person out in the rain. Superbia Squalo.

Squalo didn't have a great day either. He failed his physics pop quiz and Dino Cavallone wouldn't shut up, even after he got beaten up. So, Squalo was now taking out his annoyance on a training target with his sword. He was just about to shred his target, until some random brat bumped into him.

Marina snapped out of her happy-ish state as she nearly lost her head. Literally. Some idiot who was swinging his stupid sword around had bumped into her. She glared at him angrily. He wasn't older than thirteen.  
>"So, now that you're a teenager, you think you're so high and mighty, huh. Well, guess what. News flash! Yeah, duct tape hair. You're an idiot and should watch wear you swing that stupid sword of yours!"<p>

Squalo almost couldn't believe his ears. That same short little brat was sassing him now?  
>"Oops, I really should have payed more attention, but it's so hard to see you. By the way, how's the soil down there?" Now that struck a nerve. Especially with the sarcasm that dripped from his voice. Practically nothing pissed Marina off more than comments about her height. She was short, and she hated it. She hated being so easy to pick on because of her height. So, she did something that she had always wanted to do.<p>

Marina rolled her eyes and began to say something, but stopped mid-sentence and kicked directly in front of her. Her leg stretched as far as it could go and came into contact with Squalo's tender area within a split second. She smiled with triumph as Squalo doubled-over in pain. But her victory didn't last long.

Squalo had to admit, that REALLY hurt. Physically, but also his pride. Girls were either scared of him or cooed over him like doves (or both), but never once had he been kicked in the crotch. Oh, this brat was going to pay. Big time.

After a minute or two, Squalo got back up on his feet, and Marina stopped laughing. "Voi! That was funny for you, huh? Let's see how funny it is when you're sliced up!" he smirked, picking up his sword. Marina stepped back, bracing herself. 'Never show your fear,' Reborn always said.  
>"Cocky, much?" she replied calmly, while on the inside, she was terrified.<p>

Squalo was like a lighting bolt. He seemed to attack from all directions at once. Marina barely dodged his attacks, but without a weapon, she was defenseless. She tried to look for openings and weak areas, but he was too fast and struck so often; it was impossible to focus on anything else besides dodging.

Pained seared through Marina's arm as Squalo's sword sliced it, ripping her jacket and uniform. Her knees buckled as her energy level dropped significantly. Scarlet blood squirted out, staining her sleeve, as the metal cut through her skin. Marina felt nauseous as she watched the blood pour out of her wound. Her hands dripped with blood as she tried to cover the cut. The sickly sweet smell wafted up her nose, making her choke and cough. Squalo smirked, watching Marina struggled to get up. Right when she got up on her feet, he kicked her back down.

During this commotion, as everyone else was watching the fight, a younger girl, probably in Marina's grade, had slipped away to get someone to stop the fight. She came back with a teacher, pushing through the crowd, pointing to where Marina lay on the ground. The teacher rushed over to the two, shooing away students along the way.  
>"Explain yourself," she pointed at Squalo. He shrugged.<br>"She started it. I have a right to self-defense."  
>"Against a second-grader? The headmaster will handle this!" The teacher grabbed Squalo's arm, ignoring his scowl, and gently helped Marina up.<p>

And that's how they ended up in the headmaster's office. Marina had a chance to bandage her arm. Despite her injuries, she was very tempted to punch Squalo in the face when he mock offered his help.

As they walked out of the office, Marina wondered if the headmaster was drunk or something. The two had walked away with very minimal consequences. Both just had to serve detention for two weeks everyday before school for half an hour. Nothing more, nothing less. However, what the headmaster hadn't mentioned was that the two would be in detention together. He smiled, watching the students leave the room. The headmaster wasn't dumb, actually very wise, and he knew the two had a deep connection, deeper than they could imagine. After all, the shark belonged with the sea.*

*** Squalo means "shark," and Marina means "of the sea." (That was an unintentional connection, lol. I didn't realize it until I started writing this fic.)**

**Hope you liked it ^~^ Oh, and just so no one freaks out, Squalo's 13 years old in this, and Marina is 7 (though, I think I noted that in the summary).**

**PLEASE R&R. PLEASE try to review before adding this to a favorite list. (5 people made me cry, jk, when they favorited, but did not review!**"


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